The San, also known as Bushmen, have hunted and gathered on our planet for over 40,000 years, making them the oldest population of humans on Earth. Their ancestors laid the base of human and cultural diversity. Once inhabiting the entire African subcontinent, today the San live a life far removed from that of their nomadic ancestors. They survive the harsh conditions of the Kalahari Desert, scattered across Botswana, Namibia and southern Angola in gated conservancies.
The photographic series wishes to serve as approach to the spiritual sense and world of the ancestors of all men. Indigenous cultures, people often forgotten, rapidly disappearing, paying the price of conquest and globalisation, carry a sacred understanding of their environment. The photographs aim to emphasize the impermeable relation between men and environment. This relationship, once based on respect and admiration, is being forgotten by generations born in cities.
In depth, the conflict is not between ancient or modern, it is the crude idea of domination. Within the scientific practice and consequently the education of Western Civilization roots a feeling of superiority over peoples who follow different parameters. Somehow the other is destined to fade away, as if they are failed attempts of „being modern“. Caught up in our individual pursuit of happiness and prosperity, we risk failing to recognize the richness and diversity of life that we will loose. The diversity of ethnicities, languages and cultures is a gift that allows us to continue experiencing, learning and thriving. Culture is not trivial, it is a body of knowledge that allows the individuals to make sense of the infinite sensations of consciousness. To find meaning and order in a universe that ultimately has neither.
What if humanity will be confined within the limits of a single intellectual and spiritual ideal? What if we are laying the foundation for a generic modern culture that will have no opponents?
